Once again we come to you with juicy legal topics related to the latest developments in the Aviation, Shipping and Insurance markets. This year was a very exciting year for our practice. The Aviation and Shipping practices have spread their wings adding the first dedicated Customs and Logistics practice and thereby increasing the scope, variety and capabilities of our legal offering.

The insurance practice is about to start its very own dedicated credit insurance practice in response to the market’s increasing demand for this type of knowledge and advice.

Yazan Saoudi remains one of the leading Aviation lawyers in the region and is recognised by Who’s Who Legal on both the contentious and transactional sides of shipping and his practice is rated in band one in the shipping field by Legal 500.

Omar Omar and his shipping practice are consistently ranked in band one in both Legal 500 and Chambers Global in addition to being a leading lawyer recognised for his shipping expertise by Who’s Who Legal.

The Transport & Insurance practice was the proud sponsor of the Seatrade Maritime Congress 2019 and will continue to collaborate with the Seatrade Maritime Congress in Dammam 2020. In addition, the Transport & Insurance department will be participating in a joint seminar with Quadrant Chambers in London on 1 October 2019 which will address many legal issues of interest in the Middle East including sanctions and the latest legal developments in the region.

The final touches are being made to the Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration conference which is expected to convene on 25 November 2019. Further, our Transport & Insurance practice has won the honour of organising one of the most prestigious maritime gatherings – the Ship Arrested Legal Conference 2020 in Jordan.

Aviation wise, our lawyers took to the stage during the Cape Town Academic Project Conference in Oxford where they covered a variety of topics including linguistics and the interpretation of the Cape Town Convention from the perspective of the UAE.

In this Transport & Insurance focused edition, we have tried to cover as many different jurisdictions as possible. We have cherry picked what we believe to be the current ‘hot’ topics and offer the benefit of our hands-on experience. In Shipping, we have cruised between vessel closings, the ever-complicated crew legal issues, vessel arrest, owners’ liabilities and ongoing legal developments. Our colleagues in the Customs practice have explored several important aspects regarding handling customs-related matters in the UAE. Our insurance team has also touched on the legal developments in the Kuwaiti and UAE markets.

We hope you find this Focus issue informative and interesting and look forward to receiving your feedback.